Online retailers less than excellent

New York – Retailers are failing to satisfy too many online shoppers, a report by Future Now reveals – although mass merchants as a group are outperforming many of the specialty chains.

“The top-rated site in this study scored only 67 out of a possible 100,” the company notes in its 2007 Retail Customer Experience Study, which used a mystery shopper survey that ignored prices and brands but focused on issues such as ease of shopping, quality of product descriptions, and interactive customer reviews and other confidence-building measures.

Among the e-commerce sites that delivered Future Now’s highest-scoring “customer-centric experience,” the best was SmartBargains.com – which has fairly broad home textiles listings – followed by specialty retailers of electronics, jewelry and sporting goods.